Thickness varied thin films of undoped and Boron doped Zinc oxide have been prepared on glass substrates by advanced spray pyrolysis techniques at low substrate temperature (2000C) using different volumes of 0.075M non-aqueous solution of Zinc acetate and boric acid for doping. The structural, optical and electrical properties of undoped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films of various thicknesses were compared with those of B-doped (BZO) thin films. Transparent, high-quality undoped ZnO and BZO films were deposited successfully using advanced spray pyrolysis technique at low substrate temperature (2000C). The filmswere polycrystalline with a hexagonal structure and a strongly preferred orientation along the c-axis. X-ray diffraction analyses showed that the crystallinity of BZO films were deteriorated by addition of boron as compared to undoped thin films. Moderately high average optical transmittance has been observed for doped films than undoped films in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Blue shift in optical band gap is observed due to doping. Enhanced electric conductivity is observed for BZO thin filmas compared to undoped films of different thickness.


The semantic Web is an evolution of the current world-wide web that provides explicit semantics that enable software applications to better process information representations. The Web ontology language - OWL - is a new language for representing information on the semantic Web. Modeling and simulation (M&S) applications have many information representation challenges. Examples of M&S data include data tables from authoritative data sources, behaviors for computer generated forces, and descriptions of units and entities to be simulated. OWL provides a consistent syntax using the resource description framework (RDF) and predefined constructs with standard semantics. These features enable better information sharing and support reasoning by inferencing systems. OWL is best used for representing object-oriented descriptions of items in a well-defined domain. It could be used in the M&S community to support distributed representations of data, behaviors, descriptions of units and objects to be simulated, and scenarios with initial conditions.


Two experimental Ebola vaccines were deployed during the tenth Ebola epidemic
 (2018–20) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The first, the
 Ervebo vaccine manufactured by Merck, was used as part of a ring vaccination in
 the epicentre of the epidemic in North Kivu. In 2019, the prime- (Ad26.ZEBOV)
 and boost- (MVA-BN-Filo) vaccine manufactured by Johnson & Johnson
 (J&J) became the second vaccine against Ebola, deployed by the DRC-EB-001
 vaccine trial in Goma, North Kivu. There was international debate as to the
 value and ethics of testing a second vaccine in an epidemic context. This
 article examines how this debate unfolded among actual and potential DRC-EB-001
 trial participants in Goma. Drawing on ethnographic observation, interviews and
 focus groups, it explores how the trial was perceived and contested on the
 ground and situated in broader debates about the ethics of clinical trials,
 especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. We illustrate how debates around the
 ethics of clinical research are not simply centred on bioethical principles but
 are inseparable from local political dynamics and broader contests about
 governance, inequality and exclusion.


Learning p(A|B) often provides information about p(B|A). Do learners attend to this information? In Experiment 1, preschool-aged children learned to predict the sound of an alien from its color. The predictability of color from sound did not have a large effect on learning rate. During testing children seemed to use the learned probabilities, p(sound|color) to make judgments of the inverses, p(color|sound) rather than the actual encountered frequency distribution. In Experiment 2 adults showed a similar pattern. Adults used the probabilities they were trained on, either p(sound|color) or p(color|sound), to make judgments of the inverses. These results support previous demonstration of an "inverse fallacy" and suggest that both young children and adults show very task-specific learning.


Eastern Uttar Pradesh has a number of mills including large as well as small and ancillaries units because of availability of sufficient amount of sugarcane in this area. It has fertile plain which is highly suitable for cultivation of sugarcane, but many factors related to sugarcane cultivation as well as sugar mills have pushed the sugar industry to be agglomerated at some places which ultimately brought regional variation in distribution patterns and grouped in some clusters. This paper analyses the distribution pattern and clustering of sugar industry in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The study is based on primary as well as secondary data including number of industrial units, capital investment and involved employment. Out of total 30 working mills, 25 mills make clusters occupying eight districts, i.e., Kushinagar, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Mahrajganj and Bahraich, Balrampur, Gonda, Basti. These clusters are located in the Saryupar plain as well as Tarai region which show that sugar industry is exclusively developed in intensive sugarcane production areas.


In a previous research study, factor analyses of TOEFL section item correlations (phi-coefficients) yielded a single factor in each section. This result is consistent with the assumption that, within sections, the item response curves are proportional, a possibility not previously suggested or explored in item response theoretical studies. One potential use to the TOEFL program is that this assumption could serve as a basis for simpler equating methods than are now being used. Use of the assumption entails estimating fewer parameters and the computations could be simpler than with current methods. Other anticipated benefits are that it could reduce the chances of error in calibrating items and would permit the use of smaller equating samples, which would in turn allow pretest evaluation of substantially more items for possible operational use.

To increase the body of data evaluating the model, a cross-validation study was undertaken in which PIRC, 3PL, and a modified Rasch model were used to predict item scores of selected examinees on selected items. The study also compared predicted half-test scores with actual scores for each method. These comparisons were made using varying amounts of data to calibrate the items and calculate scores for the examinees in accordance with different estimation sample sizes. Surprisingly, the accuracy of predictions made by the models was approximately the same, and the estimation sample size appeared to make little difference. Further research in terms of randomization trials on the current data set and self-equatings similar to those conducted by Hicks (1984) is discussed.


Timbral similarities among wind instrument duos were studied. Flute, oboe, E𝄬 alto saxophone, B𝄬> clarinet, and Bl> trumpet instrumentalists performed in all possible duo pairings (dyads). Source material included B𝄬4 unisons, unison melody, major thirds, and harmonized melody. Nonunison combinations had each instrument of the pair as the soprano, creating a total of six contexts. Music major and nonmusic major subjects rated the similarity of all possible pairs of dyads in each of the six contexts. Classical multidimensional scaling (MDS) was performed; contexts were treated as " subjects" in an individual differences scaling (INDSCAL) analysis of composite data. The resulting spaces had two stable, interpretable dimensions. From verbal attribute rating experiments ( Kendall & Carterette, in preparation, a), these were identified as " nasal" vs. " not nasal," and " rich" vs. " brilliant." A third dimension was interpreted as "simple" vs. "complex."Extrema in the space were associated with three of the five instruments: Trumpet (brilliant), saxophone (rich), and oboe ( nasal). Data that were amalgamated over contexts and plotted in two dimensions yielded a circumplicial configuration. Implications for orchestration are discussed and a theoretical model of timbre combinations and groupings is presented.


: Diabetic eye disease is a major cause of blindness in the Western World and remains one of the most serious complications of diabetes mellitus. Retinopathy is the ocular complication of diabetes that most often leads to impaired vision. In recent years laser treatment has been introduced that can significantly decrease the likelihood of blindness in diabetic patients, if the eyes are treated at the appropriate stage of the disease. It remains a public health problem to make sure that each patient is treated at the optimal time in the development of the eye disease. Several types of screening programs have been designed throughout the world to meet this problem. We now report on our active screening program for diabetic eye disease and describe the sight and eye condition of the diabetic patients who have been involved in this program. In 1980, regular eye screening for diabetic retinopathy was initiated at Department of Ophthalmology, Landakot Hospital. The number of diabetic patients seen regularly has increased considerably since then, with 70-80% of type 1 diabetic patients in the country participating in the program in 1990, increasing to over 90% in 1994. About a fifth of type 2 diabetics in the country participated in the program in 1990. The patients have undergone annual eye examinations and fundus photography. Laser treatment is administered for proliferative retinopathy and diabetic macular edema according to the Diabetic Retinopathy Study and Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study criteria. In 1990, we embarked on a cross-sectional study to evaluate the prevalence of retinopathy and visual impairment of the type 1 and type 2 patients participating in our program. At the time of study, 205 insulin-taking patients, with age at diagnosis of less than 30 years, participated in our screening program. Out of those, retinopathy was present in 106 (52%), patients proliferative retinopathy in 26 (13%) and macular edema in 19 (9%). Visual acuity of 196 patients (96%) was equal or better than 6/12 in their better eye, 6 patients (3%) had 6/18-6/36 in their better eye, and 2 patients (1%) had equal or worse than 6/60 in their better eye, or legally blind. We concluded that the prevalence of retinopathy and visual impairment in type 1 diabetic patients in the country was low compared with other countries. In 1990, out of 245 diabetic patients with Type 2 diabetes, retinopathy was present in 100 patients (41%), proliferative retinopathy had been present in 17 (7%) and 24 (10%) had diabetic macular edema. A total of 224 patients (91%) had visual acuity equal or better than 6/12 in their better eye, 17 patients (7%) with 6/18-6/36 in their better eye, and 4 patients (1.6%) equal or worse than 6/60 in their better eye, or legally blind. We concluded that the prevalence of visual impairment of those type 2 diabetic patients participating in our screening program at the time of study was low compared with population-based studies from other countries. In 1992 we examined ways to make the screening program more efficient by identifying subgroups at low risk for developing eye disease that required treatment and therefore needed less frequent screening. We studied whether diabetic eye disease screening programs could be trimmed by excluding children and examining diabetic patients without retinopathy every other year. We examined all children under the age of 15 at the time of study and went through the files of all patients under age 15 examined from 1980 to 1992 at our diabetic eye screening program. We also followed for two years the type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients found to have no retinopathy in 1990, establishing their retinopathy stage two years later. Our results indicated that diabetic children under the age of 12 do not need regular screening for eye disease. Biannual examinations seemed to suffice in type 1 and 2 diabetic patients without retinopathy. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)


Background: Oral antigoagulation treatment (OAT) with warfarin have a narrow therapeutic window and patients exhibit a highly variable doseresponse that is attributable to genetic, disease-related,and environmental factors as well as prescription and nonprescription drugs, dietary vitamin K and alcohol. The effect of warfarin treatement on blood coagulation is measured using international normalized ratio (INR). Monitoring and tight control of anticoagulation treatment reduces the risk of both thrombosis and bleeding. The time in therapeutic range (TTR) has been validated as a quality indicator of the anticoagulation treatment given, correlating inversely to complication frequencies. The Swedish national quality registry for atrial fibrillation and anticoagulation (AuriculA) was founded in 2006 and has by August 2011 enrolled 68,000 patients, close to 40 % of all patients on anticoagulation in Sweden. Patients with end stage renal disease are at high risk for both bleeding and thrombosis and even a moderate decrease in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is associated with thromboembolic and bleeding complications. Impaired kidney function has also been shown to be associated with a greater need of warfarin dose adjustment, poor TTR, and an increased risk of bleeding in patients taking warfarin. New anticoagulants, most of them eliminated by renal route, can be administered in a fix dose, have few drug and no dietary interactions, has been shown to be at least inferior and in some cases superior to OAT with warfarin. Methods:
The Anticoagulation Clinic in Malmo participates in AuriculA, and uses this registry for prospective follow-up and as a tool for OAT dosage. This thesis has utilized data from AuriculA for epidemilogical analysis of impaired kidney function, using two equations for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), TTR, and the correlation of these two markers to major bleeding and thrombo-embolic events. Results: In Paper I, TTR in 18391 patients in the whole Swedish AuriculA population was 76.2%. Compared to recent prospective randomized trials of warfarin treatment, TTR in the AuriculA population was higher. Adherence to treatment, as measured by TTR, was higher in elderly patients with a significant correlation with increasing age. In 4273 patients from two centers in AuriculA the frequency of major bleedings and venous/arterial thromboembolism were 2.6 % and 1.7 % and for atrial fibrillation (AF), 2.6 % and 1.4 %, per treatment year respectively. In Paper II, the fraction of 2603 AF patients on warfarin with eGFR 3.0 (p<0.001 for both). There was no correlation between age, eGFR and thromboembolic events. The prevalence of eGFR <45ml/min/1.73m2 was 52% in patients aged ≥75 years with major bleeding. eGFR levels <30 ml/min/1.73m2 were particularly associated with high risk of bleeding in elderly patients. No correlation between eGFR and thromboembolic events was seen. In Paper IV, 397 patients on OAT with warfarin, there was a positive correlation between results from the point-of-care device (POC) CoaguChek XS and the Owren-type PT assay for INR measurement (r=0.94;p<0.001) and concordance of 88.2%. In patients with 152 double samples analyzed with the CoaguChek XS, a positive correlation of 0.99 was seen; p<0.001. Conclusions: The quality of OAT with warfarin in Sweden is high and comparable to prospective randomized trials of warfarin treatment. Complications were low, probably due to the organization of anticoagulation treatment in Sweden, although the AuriculA dosing algorithm could have contibuted by keeping dosing regimens consistent over all centers. The POC-device CoaguChek XS presents reproducible results, highly comparable with Owren PT at therapeutic levels of INR, offering a more convenient method of monitoring, compared to regular venous INR measurement in patients on OAT with warfarin. Severe renal impairment is common among AF patients on OAT with warfarin, especially at higher ages, indicating one important difference between a 'real world' clinical population and those of randomized controlled trials of new oral anticoagulant drugs, where patients with severe renal failure (eGFR <30 ml/min/1.73 m2) were excluded. Given the strong correlation between eGFR and major bleeding events in patients on anticoagulation treatment demonstrated in Paper III, caution is advised in the upcoming era of new oral anticoagulants with elimination by renal route. Monitoring of renal function should be implemented in clinical practice for AF patients treated with new anticoagulants eliminated by the kidneys and registries like AuriculA can be used for prospective follow-up of these patients.


ABSTRACT In a recent Letter to the Editor of Phytopathology, proposals were made for endorsement and for rejection of selected names of plant pathogenic Pseudomonas spp. and Xanthomonas spp. We believe that support for, and rejection of, several names was based on misconceptions concerning the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names and entails misinterpretations of several Rules of the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria. This letter aims to clarify those misconceptions and misinterpretations.


Malignant Catarrhal Fever (MCF) is viral diseases that affect cattle and transmitted by wildebeest and this result in great cattle losses in farms close the Matopos national where the cattle and wildebeests share grazing land and water sources. A study was conducted in smallholder and commercial farms close to Matopos National Park to document and establish the trend of occurrence of MCF and its contribution on cattle losses in the smallholder and commercial farming sectors. In addition, the research established the farmer perceptions on the importance, transmission and control of MCF. Information from a total of eight (8) commercial farms was obtained using semi structured questionnaires. Epidemiological data from January 2006 to April 2014 was extracted from records from stock registers of two commercial belonging to Matopos Research (West Acre and Lucydale). A total of 97 cattle owners from smallholder farmer from three (3) villages (Nyumbane, Manzana and Tshonaphansi) were interviewed using the semi structured questionnaires. In the results, MCF showed a seasonal pattern in its occurrence where cattle mortalities were recorded between February and May of 2006 to 2013 with the highest cases losses experienced between March and April of the same years. A few sporadic cases were noted between October and November in the years 2007, 2010 and 2012. MCF was perceived to be the most important disease accounting for 71 % of the deaths in the commercial farms and rated the most important disease responsible for most of the mortalities in Tshonaphansi village. However, cattle owners from Manzana and Nyumbane did not rate MCF among the three most important killer diseases but instead Quarter Evil and Lumpy Skin disease were major causes of cattle losses at their farms. Perceptions by farmers in the commercial sector on transmission, clinical signs and control of MCF were very consistent with the typical of MCF. Farmers from both sectors do not treat clinical cases but instead slaughter the animals for domestic consumption. The seasonality of MCF occurrence is associated with the calving season of wildebeests, it is therefore concluded that the best option in reducing cattle losses to implement a grazing plan that will reduce chances of cattle - wildebeest contact during the wildebeest calving season i.e. November to April in order to reduce transmission to cattle. There are very few cattle owners in Tshonaphansi village, it is therefore a more feasible option for the government to consider resettling them far away from the park instead of erecting two parallel fences 1000 metres apart around the park.


ABSTRACT Recently there has been a rapid development of structural glass projects in New York City. This progression includes the first large scale cable net wall in the U.S., large self supporting glass walls, and advanced curved glass facades (with and without cable reinforcement). In this study, these developments are described to convey both the technical implications of the individual structures as well as the methodology behind the development of new structural forms. For example, the Time Warner Center included a tall cable net wall that expanded cable net façade concepts developed in Europe. This was further developed at 7 World Trade Center (WTC) and 1 WTC. Other large scale glass façade structural strategies may be seen in the Hudson Yards West Podium Art Wall and Nordstrom Tower, both currently in the final construction stages, in which curved glass façades (in plan and section, respectively) are utilized. The Apple Store façade in Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) South, a new retail space in Brooklyn, includes large scale self supporting glass panels that form the façade. A comparative critical analysis of this progression of structural glass projects shows how structural engineers can be innovative through thoughtful design approaches with novel materials.


Loss of function of BRCA1 caused by inherited mutation and tissue-specific somatic mutation leads to breast and ovarian cancer. Nearly all BRCA1 germ-line mutations involve truncation or loss of the C-terminal BRCT transcriptional activation domain, suggesting that transcriptional regulation is a critical function of the wild-type gene. The purpose of this project was to determine whether there is a link between the role of BRCA1 in transcriptional regulation and its role in tumor suppression. We developed a cell line (in which BRCA1 can be induced) and used microarray analysis to compare transcription profiles of epithelial cells with low endogenous levels of BRCA1 vs. transcription profiles of cells with 2–4-fold higher induced levels of expression of BRCA1. At these levels of expression, BRCA1 did not induce apoptosis. Undirected cluster analysis of six paired experiments revealed 373 genes, the expression of which was altered significantly and consistently by BRCA1 induction. Expression of 62 genes was altered more than 2-fold. BRCA1-regulated genes associated with breast tumorigenesis included the estrogen-responsive genes MYC and cyclin D1, which are overexpressed in many breast tumors; STAT1 and JAK1, key components of the cytokine signal transduction pathway; the extracellular matrix protein laminin 3A; ID4, an inhibitor of DNA-binding transcriptional activators, which in turn negatively regulates BRCA1 expression; and the prohormone stanniocalcin, expression of which is lost in breast tumor cells. Coordinated expression of BRCA1 with ID4 and with stanniocalcin was confirmed in primary breast and ovarian tumors.


The paper presents the experimental results regarding the influence of the reinforcing elements on the wear behavior of Al-matrix composites discontinuously reinforced by SiC and Graphite. This antifriction composite material is processed by Reactive Mechanically Alloyed and then by Spark Plasma Sintering technology. In order to optimize the processing technology, especially the sintering parameters, the Spark Plasma Sintering process was applied because of its advantageous aspects: lower sintering temperatures, shorter sintering time and higher properties values of the sintered material vs. the corresponding ones obtained by the classical sintering route. The authors realized a comparative analysis on the wear behavior of the researched composite materials.


The similar to 2500 km long Himalayan arc has experienced three large to great earthquakes of M-w 7.8 to 8.4 during the past century, but none produced surface rupture. Paleoseismic studies have been conducted during the last decade to begin understanding the timing, size, rupture extent, return period, and mechanics of the faulting associated with the occurrence of large surface rupturing earthquakes along the similar to 2500 km long Himalayan Frontal Thrust (HFT) system of India and Nepal. The previous studies have been limited to about nine sites along the western two-thirds of the HFT extending through northwest India and along the southern border of Nepal. We present here the results of paleoseismic investigations at three additional sites further to the northeast along the HFT within the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam. The three sites reside between the meizoseismal areas of the 1934 Bihar-Nepal and 1950 Assam earthquakes. The two westernmost of the sites, near the village of Chalsa and near the Nameri Tiger Preserve, show that offsets during the last surface rupture event were at minimum of about 14 m and 12 m, respectively. Limits on the ages of surface rupture at Chalsa (site A) and Nameri (site B), though broad, allow the possibility that the two sites record the same great historical rupture reported in Nepal around A.D. 1100. The correlation between the two sites is supported by the observation that the large displacements as recorded at Chalsa and Nameri would most likely be associated with rupture lengths of hundreds of kilometers or more and are on the same order as reported for a surface rupture earthquake reported in Nepal around A.D. 1100. Assuming the offsets observed at Chalsa and Nameri occurred synchronously with reported offsets in Nepal, the rupture length of the event would approach 700 to 800 km. The easternmost site is located within Harmutty Tea Estate (site C) at the edges of the 1950 Assam earthquake meizoseismal area. Here the most recent event offset is relatively much smaller (<2.5 m), and radiocarbon dating shows it to have occurred after A.D. 1100 (after about A.D. 1270). The location of the site near the edge of the meizoseismal region of the 1950 Assam earthquake and the relatively lesser offset allows speculation that the displacement records the 1950 M-w 8.4 Assam earthquake. Scatter in radiocarbon ages on detrital charcoal has not resulted in a firm bracket on the timing of events observed in the trenches. Nonetheless, the observations collected here, when taken together, suggest that the largest of thrust earthquakes along the Himalayan arc have rupture lengths and displacements of similar scale to the largest that have occurred historically along the world's subduction zones.


Due to the increasing service component of information technology, service quality measurement has become increasingly important as IS practitioners attempt to increase service quality to customers. The measurement of service quality in IS evolved from the research done in the marketing literature. The SERVQUAL instrument has evolved to become the most commonly used measurement instrument in both IS and marketing. Although commonly used, the SERVQUAL instrument is not without criticism. This paper describes the SERVQUAL instrument, its criticisms and support, and finally the SERVPERF instrument, a variation of the SERVQUAL instrument which is an attempt at improving upon the SERVQUAL instrument.


The publication describes an on-the-fly tracking experiment using a self tracking interferometer on a small three-axis machining center. On-the-fly based on continuous measurement, you can get much more measured points while reducing the time required for machine tool calibration than using Trigger or time measurements. The present publication compares the time required for calibration of the machine, and compares measured and evaluated data with each other. At the end the results are presented for calibration and verification of volumetric compensation with self tracking interferometer. In addition, the results obtained were verified by a circular test ISO 230-4.


Abstract. The relative humidity (RH) dependence of aerosol light scattering is an essential parameter for accurate estimation of the direct radiative forcing induced by aerosol particles. Because of insufficient information on aerosol hygroscopicity in climate models, a more detailed parameterization of hygroscopic growth factors and resulting optical properties with respect to location, time, sources, aerosol chemistry and meteorology are urgently required. In this paper, a retrieval method to calculate the aerosol hygroscopicity parameter, κ, is proposed based on the in situ measured aerosol light scattering enhancement factor, namely f(RH), and particle number size distribution (PNSD) obtained from the HaChi (Haze in China) campaign. Measurements show that f(RH) increases sharply with increasing RH, and that the time variance of f(RH) is much greater at higher RH. A sensitivity analysis reveals that the f(RH) is more sensitive to the aerosol hygroscopicity than PNSD. f(RH) for polluted cases is distinctly higher than that for clean periods at a specific RH. The derived equivalent κ, combined with the PNSD measurements, is applied in the prediction of the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration. The predicted CCN number concentration with the derived equivalent κ agrees well with the measured ones, especially at high supersaturations. The proposed calculation algorithm of κ with the f(RH) measurements is demonstrated to be reasonable and can be widely applied.


Motor dynamics in a mechanical transmission chain of a robot are common in practice and may significantly affect the dynamic characteristics and stability of a robot. Synthesis of a robust controller for a robot, including motor dynamics, is essentially more complex than that for rigid-body manipulators. The controllers currently in existence require exact knowledge of both the robot and motor dynamics. The acceleration feedback is needed to form a complete state feedback vector for the third-order dynamic system. In this paper, an adaptive controller is proposed, which is able to deal with uncertainties in both the robot and the motor dynamics. An adaptive nonlinear observer is designed to observe the acceleration instead of measuring it by feedback. The closed-loop system is proved to be globally stable in the Lyapunov sense. >


Various measures have been taken in different countries to mitigate the Covid-19 epidemic. But, throughout the world, many citizens don't understand well how these measures are taken and even question the decisions taken by their government. Should the measures be more (or less) restrictive? Are they taken for a too long (or too short) period of time? To provide some quantitative elements of response to these questions, we consider the well-known SEIR model for the Covid-19 epidemic propagation and propose a pragmatic model of the government decision-making operation. Although simple and obviously improvable, the proposed model allows us to study the tradeoff between health and economic aspects in a pragmatic and insightful way. Assuming a given number of phases for the epidemic (namely, 4 in this paper) and a desired tradeoff between health and economic aspects, it is then possible to determine the optimal duration of each phase and the optimal severity level (i.e., the target transmission rate) for each of them. The numerical analysis is performed for the case of France but the adopted approach can be applied to any country. One of the takeaway messages of this analysis is that being able to implement the optimal 4−phase epidemic management strategy in France would have led to 1.05 million of infected people and a GDP loss of 231 billions € instead of 6.88 millions of infected and a loss of 241 billions €. This indicates that, seen from the proposed model perspective, the effectively implemented epidemic management strategy is good economically, whereas substantial improvements might have been obtained in terms of health impact. Our analysis indicates that the lockdown/severe phase should have been more severe but shorter, and the adjustment phase occurred earlier. Due to the natural tendency of people to deviate from the official rules, updating measures every month over the whole epidemic episode seems to be more appropriate.


Newly generated frequencies during bulk continuum generation with femtosecond pump pulses do not fluctuate statistically and show strong correlations in spectrum and time. When a femtosecond continuum is used as probe light for transient spectroscopic measurements, these correlations result in a seemingly low noise level but large-scale pseudo-structures that obscure the interpretation. We investigate the correlations for continua generated in YAG and calcium fluoride plates and incorporate the results into the design of our pump–probe setup. The high degree of correlation to the next pulse is utilized through chopping of the pump and referencing between successive laser shots. To suppress the adverse effect of the high degree of correlation to other wavelengths, we extend the detection by multichannel referencing with a second camera. The combination of both referencing schemes renders a precise spectral calibration unnecessary and increases the sensitivity of our spectrometer by a factor of 5 down to 20 μOD. This is already very close to the shot noise limit. To demonstrate the improvements, we present and discuss measurements on two different molecular solutions.


Hyperspectral imagery contains a wealth of information about the
material content of remotely imaged scenes based on the unique spectral characteristics of the objects within them. This information is perturbed by spectral properties of the illumination, atmosphere, and environment, as previously described, and is further corrupted by sensor spectral response and system noise. Extracting information from hyperspectral data for any application requires consideration of all of these factors. While analytical methods can be unique to a particular remote sensing application, they
generally share the overall challenge of needing to sort through the huge volume of data that hyperspectral imagery can represent to detect specific materials of interest, classify materials into groupings with similar spectral properties, or estimate specific physical properties based on their spectral characteristics. Whether such an analysis is performed in a fully automated fashion or with significant manual intervention, the ability to perform these primary analytical functions relies on suitable underlying models for
the observed data, relative to the expected signal, background, and noise properties. It also requires numerical methods to aid in the extraction of pertinent and useful information from the volume of data. Such models and methods are explored in this chapter. The emphasis is on statistical and geometric models that have been widely employed across hyperspectral remote sensing applications, even if they originated from other fields such as communications, speech processing, and pattern recognition. Since numerical approaches for hyperspectral image classification and target
detection are closely coupled with underlying statistical models, this chapter serves as a basis for the two chapters to follow that address these topics.


Ecological aspects have gained increasing attention during recent decades in urban land use planning and site development. However, relatively little attention has been paid so far to mass and energy flows of urban infrastructure and utility systems in particular, in spite of their significant contribution to the total mass. In the first part of this paper, the mass of water mains and sewers is quantified in relation to the mass of buildings. The second part of the paper deals with the development of the stock of water mains and sewers from the past to the future. Future rehabilitation needs in terms of annual mileage of pipelines reaching the end of their service life are forecast with a cohort survival model. In the third part of the paper, some preliminary results are presented on the mass and energy flows of water mains and sewers. Conventional life cycle assessment methodology is applied to pipelines of different materials.


Using interposon mutagenesis, we have generated strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa which lack or overexpress the substrate-selective OprB porin of this species. A marked decrease or increase in the initial uptake of glucose by these strains verified the role of OprB in facilitating the diffusion of glucose across the outer membrane of P. aeruginosa. However, we also demonstrated that the loss or overexpression of OprB had a similar effect on the uptake of three other sugars able to support the growth of this bacterium (mannitol, glycerol, and fructose). This effect was restricted to carbohydrate transport; arginine uptake was identical in mutant and wild-type strains. These results indicated that OprB cannot be considered strictly a glucose-selective porin; rather, it acts as a central component of carbohydrate transport and is more accurately described as a carbohydrate-selective porin.


The control problem of the dynamics of actuators is considered to obtain a given optimal movement of the end-effector for a parallel Dexterous Twin Arms Robot (DexTAR). The trajectory is assumed to be known in advance, and the law of motion along the trajectory is given from some optimality conditions. The equations of dynamics of the robot are written under the condition that the leading rods are driven by torques of a symmetrically arranged pair of engines. The solutions of the direct and inverse kinematic problems are presented as auxiliary material. The resulting nonlinear motion equations are derived. A numerical example shows that the equations can be simplified neglecting the change in the angle between the rods at the end-effector. Numerical examples of calculating the torques are given.


This is an overview of the invited talk delivered at the 41st International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS-2016).


Terminal differentiation of many vascular cells involves cell wall changes. Cells first elongate their primary wall, then lay down a lignified secondary wall, which is often followed by digestion of the primary wall. Expansins are wall proteins that regulate wall changes, but little is known about the specific functions of the many individual expansin isoforms. An in vitro cell culture of synchronously differentiating tracheary elements was used to identify three new expansins and to compare their expression kinetics with the timing of wall changes. The genes encoding these expansins from zinnia (Zinnia elegans), designated ZeExp1, ZeExp2, ZeExp3, are expressed during cell elongation. ZeExp1 and ZeExp2 mRNA decrease at the early stage of secondary wall formation, whereas ZeExp3 does not. In planta, all three ZeExp mRNAs are found predominantly in a single flank of cells adjacent to protoxylem and metaxylem vessels and in cells roughly at the radial position of the fasicular and interfasicular cambium. Furthermore, within these cells, Exp mRNA is localized exclusively either to the apical or basipetal end of cells depending on the expansin gene and organ, providing the first evidence for polar localization of mRNA in plant cells. ZeExp1 and ZeExp3 mRNA are localized at the apical tip, whereas ZeExp2 mRNA is found in the basal tip. These observations indicate that these three expansins are xylem cell specific and possibly involved in the intrusive growth of the primary walls of differentiating xylem cells.


This paper presents a novel tactile sensing technique for tissue elasticity measurements. A prototype flexible tactile sensor has been successfully fabricated using polydimethylsiloxane as the structural material. The proposed sensor comprises an array of capacitors with no active elements used. By varying the sizes of sensing membranes within the capacitors, different stiffnesses of sensing diaphragms can be achieved. The elasticity of the targeted object can be thereafter measured based on the relative deflections of the sensing diaphragms. The fabricated sensor has been calibrated by an off-the-shelf polymer durometer hardness selector pack. The results show a sensing resolution of 0.1 MPa for elasticity measurement and a force sensing resolution as small as 5 mN. This flexible tactile sensor can be embedded on the distal portions of various endoscopic instruments for in vivo tissue elasticity measurements.


Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a life-threatening clinical syndrome defined as an acute and severe diffuse lung injury of known origin (1). The mortality rate for ARDS is still high, although it has decreased in the last decades (2). Current treatments are only supportive and there is no effective therapy interfering with the molecular basis of ARDS (3,4): in fact, despite extensive research, almost all promising potential therapies have proven unsuccessful in clinical trials. This is also the case of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase II trial evaluating the keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) for the treatment of the ARDS (KARE trial), which has been recently published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine (5).


Kesterite solar cells based on chalcogenide Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe) are a viable approach to thin film photovoltaics, utilising Earth-abundant, non-toxic elements. CZTSSe films produced from nanoparticle inks offer a cost-effective solution-based method of fabrication. However, improving efficiency in these devices has proved challenging, in part due to the presence of detrimental complex defects within the bulk of the CZTSSe absorber. In this study, the behaviour of nanoparticle-based CZTSSe absorbers and solar cells made from relatively low and high quality grade chemicals is investigated with a view to improving cost-effectiveness of the ink-based fabrication process. Photoluminescence spectroscopy revealed the presence of similar shallow acceptor plus shallow donor states in both low and high purity precursor absorbers. We demonstrate a relationship between the average depth of energy band-edge potential fluctuations and absorber quality where the higher grade chemical precursor-based absorber outperforms the lower purity version. In addition, the low purity precursor absorber had a higher total defect density resulting in a 10 meV increase in the average electrostatic potential fluctuations. Deep level transient spectroscopy in solar devices indicated the presence of detrimental deep defect states in both types of absorber. Notwithstanding the high purity precursor absorber with lower defect density, the power conversion efficiencies of both types of CZTSSe solar cells were similar (∼5%), implying an issue other than defects in the absorber bulk inhibits device performance as evidenced by quantum efficiency analysis and current–voltage measurements.


Based on the character of plate rolling, the temperature model was developed by considering the influence of radiation, convection, water descaling, and roll conductivity and deformation energy. The factors affect the finishing temperature of the plate were analyzed, including the holding time during control rolling, rolling speed, slab temperature and pass number. Holding time, rolling speed and slab temperature have significant influence on finishing temperature, and pass number has great influence on finishing temperature of thick plate, but has little on finishing temperature of media plate.


This paper examines the conflicts and resistances that contemporary organizations face in the effort of generating new and challenging work opportunities. Assuming the metaphoric and real character of the 'body of the organization' ,d ifferent dilemmas that work groups tackle in the generation of collaborative and productive spaces are described. Based on a socioanalytic consultancy carried out with a group of Reichian body psychotherapists, the study illustrates the complexities to delineate a common strategy and to overcome the threatening porosity and inconsistencies of the 'institutional skin'. The lack of a body support is particularly paradoxical for a group of psychotherapists that base their therapeutic method on body techniques, and which crystallizes as an institution the place of rejection and exclusion that Reich and the concern for the body have historically occupied. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The present study aimed to compare changes in muscle damage and performance parameters after playing single versus multiple soccer matches to examine fixture congestion effects on performance. Twelve elite female university soccer players performed single, three and six consecutive 90-min bouts of the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (LIST) with ≥12-weeks between conditions in a pseudo-randomized order. Heart rate, blood lactate, rating of perceived exertion and covering distance in each LIST were examined. Changes in several types of muscle damage (e.g., maximal voluntary isometric torque of the knee extensors: MVC-KE) and performance measures (e.g., Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test level 1: YYIR1) were taken before each LIST, 1 h, and 1–5 d after the last LIST. The total distance covered during the LIST was shorter (p < 0.05) in the 2nd–3rd, or 2nd–6th LISTs when compared with the 1st LIST. Changes (p < 0.05) in all measures were observed after the LIST, and the greatest changes were observed after the six than after the three LISTs followed by one LIST (e.g., largest changes in MVC-KE: −26 > −20 > −14%; YYIR1: −31 > −26 > −11%). Many of the variables did not recover to the baseline for 5 d after six LISTs. These suggest that fixture congestion induces greater muscle damage and performance decline than a single match.


We demonstrate the on-surface synthesis of porous carbon nanoribbons on Ag(111) via a preprogrammed isomerization of conformationally flexible polymer chains followed by dehydrogenation reactions using thermal annealing. The carbon chains are fabricated by polymerization of prochiral 1,3,5-tris(3-bromophenyl)benzene (mTBPB) directly on the surface using an Ullmann-type reaction. At room temperature, mTBPB partially self-assembles in halogen-bonded 2D networks, which transform into organometallic chains and rings after debromination. The chain and ring formation is facilitated by conformational switching from a C3h to Cs symmetry of mTBPB via rotation of m-phenylene units. The high conformational selectivity toward Cs-conformers is templated by the twofold coordination to Ag adatoms. After thermally induced covalent-linking through aryl-aryl coupling, well-ordered nanoporous chains are created. Finally, the rotation of single phenylene units in combination with dehydrogenation cross-linking reactions within the polymer chains leads to the unexpected formation of porous carbon nanoribbons. We unveil the reaction mechanism in a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy study and demonstrate that the rotation of m-phenylene units is a powerful design tool to promote structural control in the synthesis of cyclic covalent organic nanostructures on metal surfaces.


Tests have been conducted in an experimental eight lysimeter plot. Lysimeters are dug into the ground. All lysimeters are connected by a tube which leads towards a well with containers for leachate collection installed inside of it. The aim of the research is to determine nutrient leaching intensity after application of various organic and mineral fertilizers. The following fertilizers were chosen for the research: organic - Biojodis, Biokal, slurry, Horn Shavings Provita, Horn Core Powder; mineral - ammonium saltpeter. After application of fertilizers, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium ions and phosphate concentrations in leachate were periodically measured. Research results show that the lowest concentrations of nitrites and ammonium ions are found after application of Horn Shavings, Horn Core Powder and Provita fertilizers. Application of ammonium saltpeter fertilizers resulted in nitrates leaching into lysimetric water by the 14th month; application of slurry, Biokal and Biojodis resulted in nitrates leaching into lysimetric water by the 36th month; application of Horn Core Powder, Horn Shavings and Provita did not result in nitrates leaching into lysimetric water by the 44th month. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.65.3.4800


In this work, a functional nanocomposite consisting of multi walled carbon nanotubes combined with nanoparticles of silver and Pomegranate peel extract (MWCNTs- SNPs -NPGPE) was successfully synthesized using ultra sonic technique. The nanocomposite has been characterized using Transmission electron microscope (TEM), XRD, Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) UV-Vis and FTIR. The obtained results reveal that the MWCNTs-SNPs-NPGPE nanocomposite exhibits form of nanotubes with rough surfaces and containing black spots, which are the silver nanoparticles. The dimensions of this tube are 161 nm in length and 60 nm in width with nanoparticles of silver not exceeding 20 nm. The XRD pattern of the prepared MWCNTs-SNPs-NPGPE nanocomposite showed four main peaks corresponding to the carbon nanotubes and planes of face centered cubic silver nanoparticles. The IR spectra referring to the(O-H) group stretching vibrations in carboxylic acid groups might come from NPGPE, and the stretching vibration of aliphatic C-H in carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotube was used in solar cells (CNSCs) fabricated with and/or without fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) on the glass substrate with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methylester (PCBM) blends (P3HT: PCBM). The FTO-(MWCNTs-SNPs-NPGPE / P3HT: PCBM/CNT/FTO-glass revealed more efficient CNSCs.


DiCanio et al. (2020) (this volume) argue that San Martin Itunyoso Triqui has a morphophonological exchange (also called 'polarity'), where morphemes are realized by switching feature values: e.g. the bare root [an??] 'get dirty' is realized as [an??] in the 1s, while the root [ani?] 'stop' is 1s [an??]. In this Reply, I seek to clarify how the descriptive use of 'exchange' relates to and differs from its meaning in phonological theories. I also show that the issue of whether exchanges exist is highly theory-dependent. For SPE, Lexical Phonology and Morphology, and single-level parallelist OT with opacity mechanisms, the IT forms do not provide evidence for exchange mechanisms. In contrast, a version of OT that lacks opacity mechanisms probably cannot generate the IT forms without an exchange mechanism. Issues facing the analyst, such as how to prove that exchanges exist, and which apparent exchanges one should expect to observe, are also discussed.


Research on regime change has often wound up chasing events in the post-Soviet world because it has frequently assumed that regime change, if not simple instability, implies a trajectory toward a regime-type endpoint like democracy or autocracy. A supplemental approach recognizes that regime change can be cyclic, not just progressive, regressive, or random. In fact, regime cycles are much of what we see in the postcommunist world, where some states have oscillated from autocracy toward greater democracy, then back toward more autocracy, and, with recent "colored revolutions," toward greater democracy again. An institutional logic of elite collective action, focusing on the effects of patronal presidentialism, is shown to be useful in understanding such cyclic dynamics, explaining why "revolutions" occurred between 2003 and 2005 in Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan but not in countries like Russia, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan.


The growth in the quantity of information and services offered online has been phenomenal. Nevertheless, access mechanisms have remained relatively primitive, requiring users to primarily point and click their way through a forest of Web links and to expend valuable cognitive capacities to track the geography of the Web space. Conversational systems can provide an intuitive, flexible multi-modal interface to online resources. The explosive growth of the World Wide Web, the continuing standardization of Web related technologies, and the growing penetration of Internet access enable us to embed a very thin client inside a standard Web browser, making conversational interfaces available to a much wider audience. This paper presents WebGALAXY, a conversational spoken language system for access to selected online resources from within a typical browser. A thin Java based client is employed as the front end with much of the speech and natural language processing occuring on remote servers.


Purpose To evaluate continuous variations of ocular microcirculation by laser speckle flowgraphy and those of regional stiffening by pulse wave velocity (PWV) and vascular resistance under systemic adrenaline administration in rabbits. Methods Six 16-week-old male rabbits were evaluated. The mean blur rates in the retinal vessel (MBR-RV) and choroid (MBR-CH) were measured. We assessed blood pressure (BP), femoral and carotid vascular resistance, and the heart–ankle (ha)-PWV, heart–femoral (hf)-PWV, and femoral–ankle (fa)-PWV. Adrenaline (100, 300, and 1000 ng/kg) was intravenously administered over a 10-minute period during which the parameters were measured simultaneously every 2 minutes. Results The MBR-RV and MBR-CH values were dose-dependently increased by the adrenaline in parallel with increased BP. At the load of 100 ng/kg adrenaline, the ΔMBR-RV and ΔMBR-CH showed positive correlations with the variation rate in mean arterial blood pressure. Also, the variation rate in carotid vascular resistance and the Δfa-PWV and Δhf-PWV were significantly positively correlated with both the ΔMBR-RV and ΔMBR-CH. At the 300-ng/kg phase, the correlations between the Δha-PWV and both ΔMBR-RV and ΔMBR-CH were canceled; instead, the Δhf-PWV showed a significant negative correlation with the ΔMBR-RV and ΔMBR-CH. At the 1000-ng/kg phase, Δha-PWV again showed significant positive correlations with the ΔMBR-RV and ΔMBR-CH. Conclusions These results indicate the possibility that under a systemic administration of adrenaline in rabbits, not only the BP value but also the vascular resistance and arterial function are related to the variation in ocular microcirculation. Translational Relevance A real-time evaluation system of systemic regional arterial function and ocular microcirculation in rabbits was developed.


In diagnostic applications of statistical machine learning methods to brain imaging data, common problems include data high-dimensionality and co-linearity, which often cause over-fitting and instability. To overcome these problems, we applied partial least squares (PLS) regression to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data, creating a low-dimensional representation that relates symptoms to brain activity and that predicts clinical measures. Our experimental results, based upon data from clinically depressed patients and healthy controls, demonstrated that PLS and its kernel variants provided significantly better prediction of clinical measures than ordinary linear regression. Subsequent classification using predicted clinical scores distinguished depressed patients from healthy controls with 80% accuracy. Moreover, loading vectors for latent variables enabled us to identify brain regions relevant to depression, including the default mode network, the right superior frontal gyrus, and the superior motor area.


The torque ripple of brushless dc (BLDC) motors at low rotation speeds is prominent, while in the majority of working time of the automotive electric power steering (EPS) system, the steering rate is low and the assistant motor runs at low rotation speeds. Therefore, to develop a high-performance EPS system with a BLDC motor, the problem of torque ripple at low rotation speeds must be solved. Otherwise, the steering feel will not be smooth. This paper proposed an algorithm based on BLDC motors' essential torque formula combined with the back-EMF (Electromotive Force) waveform coefficient to modify the target current to suppress the torque pulsation effectively. Meanwhile, the commutation process of this type motor is very short. Therefore, the torque coefficient can be regarded as constant during the commutation intervals. A direct pulse-width modulation (PWM) control method considering phase resistances is analyzed with a unipolar PWM scheme to reduce the commutation torque ripple further. Finally, simulations and experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of this method.


It was demonstrated in experiments made on a fraction of plasma membranes of the uterine smooth muscle cells that PH-dependence of enzymatic activity of the "basal" (Ca(2+)-independent) Mg(2+)-ATPase obtained under the conditions of determining the initial velocity of ATP hydrolysate is not bell-shaped but is characterized by linearity in the range of the values of hydrogen index 6.0-8.0. A kinetic model of Mg(2+)-dependent enzymatic hydrolysis of ATP has been suggested and analyzed; the model explains the linearity of the above pH-dependence. Results of kinetic analysis prove that the cause of linear pH-dependence of enzymatic activity of the "basal" Mg(2+)-ATPase is that the proton H+ is a competitive inhibitor of the given enzyme: the increase of protons concentration leads to a decrease of the affinity of Mg(2+)-ATP substrate for the enzyme, but it has no effect on the number of circulations of the latter. Thus the work gives a kinetic substantiation of the possible regulatory role of protons H+ as the factor of original negative inverse relation which controls the enzymatic activity of the basal Mg(2+)-ATPase "producing" protons in the myometrium cells; the concentration of protons in the near-membrane regions of the myoplasma being increased the ATPase activity decreases, and the former being decreased the latter increases. It is not excluded that owing to its original linear pH-dependence the studied ATP-hydrolase system serves as an important element of the control of proton homeostasis in the smooth-muscle cells.


In this paper, the structure modification of triptolide was studied and nine triptolide derivatives were synthesized. A preliminary test for the immunosuppression activity in vitro showed that tripchlorolide (2) and tripbromolide (3) have strong activity similar to triptolide, while their toxicity are much lower. The activity of other compounds was decreased significantly. A simple method for the preparation of tripchlorolide from triptolide in 92% yield was found by reacting triptolide with HCl in acetone under mild condition.


Correct cell division relies on the formation of a bipolar spindle. In animal cells, microtubule nucleation at the spindle poles is facilitated by the pericentriolar material (PCM), which assembles around a pair of centrioles. Although centrioles are essential for PCM assembly, proteins that anchor the PCM to the centrioles are less known. Here we investigate the molecular function of PCMD-1 in bridging the PCM and the centrioles in Caenorhabditis elegans. We demonstrate that centrosomal recruitment of PCMD-1 is dependent on the outer centriolar protein SAS-7. While the most C-terminal part of PCMD-1 is sufficient to target it to the centrosome, the coiled-coil domain promotes its accumulation by facilitating self-interaction. We reveal that PCMD-1 is bridging the centrioles and PCM scaffold through protein-protein interactions with the PCM scaffold protein SPD-5, the mitotic kinase PLK-1 and the centriolar protein SAS-4. Using an ectopic translocation assay, we show that PCMD-1 is able to selectively recruit downstream PCM scaffold components to an ectopic location in the cell, indicating that PCMD-1 is sufficient to anchor the PCM scaffold proteins to the centrioles. Our work suggests that PCMD-1 is an essential functional bridge between the centrioles and the PCM.


1. In this paper the effects of vertical and superior frontal lobe removal are considered in relation to touch learning and discussed in the light of findings from visual experiments. 2. Removal of the vertical and/or the median superior frontal lobe slows touch learning. The operated animals take nearly twice as many trials as controls to learn a simple tactile discrimination. Their performance is more variable than that of controls. 3. Removal of these parts increases the number, but does not alter the sign of errors made. Removal of the median superior frontal does not appear to add to the effect of removing the vertical lobe. 4. The pattern of errors made by controls and experimental animals is similar within groups of massed trials given in the course of training. 5. Once trained to a given standard of accuracy (75 or 85% correct responses) the operated animals remember for as long as controls. Retention tests show little difference in performance 5 and 10 days after the end of training; the difference between controls and experimentals cannot be attributed to more rapid forgetting by the latter. 6. In experiments involving reversal of learned discriminations controls learn in fewer trials than experimentals. 7. Octopuses operated after training show an immediate decline in performance that can, to a considerable extent, be compensated by further training. The operations do not entirely remove the effects of past experience. Again, the effects are quantitative, not qualitative. 8. Octopuses with the vertical lobes removed take about six times as long as controls to examine and reject an unfamiliar object. 9. These results are considered in relation to ( a ) the effects of lesions to the inferior frontal and subfrontal lobes, which are anatomically similar to the superior frontal and vertical, and ( b ) current theories of the function of the vertical lobe in visual experiments. 10. It is concluded that the vertical lobe produces quantitative increases in the effects of experience on subsequent actions. It remains unestablished whether it does this by amplifying the effects of events taking place elsewhere in the central nervous system or by adding further units to a pool of neurones alterable by experience. The latter seems more probable in view of experiments on the anatomically similar sub-frontal lobe, where a minimal number of cells must be present if the animals are to learn at all.


This work presents a study of a fully nonastigmatic design of a single-longitudinal-mode, wavelength-tunable, unidirectional alexandrite ring laser cavity and assessment of its performance compared to more complex laser design requiring astigmatism compensation. A "displaced mode" nonastigmatic laser cavity design eliminating astigmatic cavity elements is developed around an alexandrite crystal end-pumped by a low-brightness, high-power red diode laser pump system. Single-longitudinal-mode, continuous-wave operation is demonstrated with output power of 700 mW with an excellent TEM00 mode (M2<1.1) across a wide pump power range. Wavelength tuning from 748–773 nm is produced using a birefringent filter plate. The nonastigmatic alexandrite laser design achieves better spatial quality and resilience to maintain TEM00 operation across wide variation in pump-induced lensing compared to the astigmatic design. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first wavelength-tunable, single-longitudinal-mode operation of a unidirectional alexandrite ring system in a fully nonastigmatic cavity regime.


Human dopamine (DA) transporter (hDAT) regulates dopaminergic signaling in the central nervous system by maintaining the synaptic concentration of DA at physiological levels, upon reuptake of DA into presynaptic terminals. DA translocation involves the co-transport of two sodium ions and the channeling of a chloride ion, and it is achieved via alternating access between outward-facing (OF) and inward-facing states of DAT. hDAT is a target for addictive drugs, such as cocaine, amphetamine (AMPH), and therapeutic antidepressants. Our recent quantitative systems pharmacology study suggested that orphenadrine (ORPH), an anticholinergic agent and anti-Parkinson drug, might be repurposable as a DAT drug. Previous studies have shown that DAT-substrates like AMPH or -blockers like cocaine modulate the function of DAT in different ways. However, the molecular mechanisms of modulation remained elusive due to the lack of structural data on DAT. The newly resolved DAT structure from Drosophila melanogaster opens the way to a deeper understanding of the mechanism and time evolution of DAT–drug/ligand interactions. Using a combination of homology modeling, docking analysis, molecular dynamics simulations, and molecular biology experiments, we performed a comparative study of the binding properties of DA, AMPH, ORPH, and cocaine and their modulation of hDAT function. Simulations demonstrate that binding DA or AMPH drives a structural transition toward a functional form predisposed to translocate the ligand. In contrast, ORPH appears to inhibit DAT function by arresting it in the OF open conformation. The analysis shows that cocaine and ORPH competitively bind DAT, with the binding pose and affinity dependent on the conformational state of DAT. Further assays show that the effect of ORPH on DAT uptake and endocytosis is comparable to that of cocaine.


Advances in healthcare systems require faster data transmission between medical instruments and hospital information systems (HISs) and cloud migration for better computing capability and scalability. Old medical instruments should be integrated with modern HISs to provide real‐time examination service to patients. Still, such integration carries some problems, especially when novel services are involved, such as real‐time fall detection and mobile healthcare. Some hospitals have formulated standard operating procedures (SOPs) in response, requiring the electronic health record generated by an old instrument to be manually converted and uploaded to the HIS by medical personnel. However, such SOPs may compromise the real‐time performance and increase medical personnel workload and complexity. Thus, this article proposes a framework named Cross, which comprises an embedded bridging module, CrossBridger, and a server‐side software program, CrossServer, to integrate old instruments into a modern HIS using an edge computing paradigm. With Cross, users can solve system integration problems and deploy more protective strategies in existing HISs to fulfill the demands of novel services relatively cheaply. Based on the proposed framework, we implement a solution that can automate most existing SOPs and lighten the workload of medical personnel so that they can provide better care and service to patients. We summarize the practical experience of the implementation based on the solution. As a case study, we deploy the implementation to a real‐world hospital to demonstrate the feasibility of Cross. Furthermore, we evaluate Cross's efficacy under various network statuses in three experiments.


Several stochastic models with environmental noise generate spatio-temporal Gaussian fields of log densities for the species in a community. Combinations of such models for many species often lead to lognormal species abundance distributions. In spatio-temporal analysis it is often realistic to assume that the same species are expected to occur at different times and/or locations because extinctions are rare events. Spatial and temporal β-diversity can then be analyzed by studying pairs of communities at different times or locations defined by a bivariate lognormal species abundance model in which a single correlation occurs. This correlation, which is a measure of similarity between two communities, can be estimated from samples even if the sampling intensities vary and are unknown, using the bivariate Poisson lognormal distribution. The estimators are approximately unbiased, although each specific correlation may be rather uncertain when the sampling effort is low with only a small fraction of the species represented in the samples. An important characteristic of this community correlation is that it relates to the classical Jaccard- or the Sorensen-indices of similarity based on the number of species present or absent in two communities. However, these indices calculated from samples of species in a community do not necessarily reflect similarity of the communities because the observed number of species depends strongly on the sampling intensities. Thus, we propose that our community correlation should be considered as an alternative to these indices when comparing similarity of communities. We illustrate the application of the correlation method by computing the similarity between temperate bird communities.


Dialogue is the new buzzword for the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) system. Judges throughout Europe have welcomed and encouraged dialogue, and references to the notion have become commonplace at conferences and in academic writing. Yet although the buzz has intensified, exactly why dialogue can be of added value is not often examined. Nor do those who rely on the notion usually explain how exactly it can be operationalised in a practical sense. This volume dissects the common-sense realisation that dialogue adds value to the Convention system, within which the State Parties, the Court, the Committee of Ministers (Committee), the Parliamentary Assembly (Assembly), and the Commissioner for Human Rights (Commissioner) interact. The question of why dialogue should occur is answered through an account of the way the system is established and how it functions, and of the developments and reform it has experienced. The second aim of the volume is to establish whether Convention dialogue does indeed live up to its potential added value. For this purpose, 26 procedures and 'procedural steps' are investigated in the light of 'indicators of dialogue'. The procedures include third-party interventions, the pilot-judgment procedure, and the Committee's Human Rights meetings. Both the procedures' dialogic potential on paper and their 'dialogicness' in practice are assessed, based in part on interviews with inter alia the Court's judges, agents representing the states before the Court, and persons monitoring the execution of the Court's judgments. This volume will be of use to those who are interested in the notion of (Convention) dialogue and its theoretical underpinnings, and those who would like to know more about Convention-related procedures, the execution of the Court's judgments, and the role that the Assembly and the Commissioner can play in the Convention system. (Series: School of Human Rights Research, volume 77) [Subject: Human Rights Law, European Law]


Alfentanil 75 μg kg −1 or saline (control group) was given 1 min before induction of anaesthesia in 20 healthy patients premedicated with diazepam 0.14 mg kg −1 and pethidine 1 mgkg −1 . Anaesthesia was induced with a sleep dose of thiopentone preceded by glycopyrrolate. Suxamethonium 1 mg kg −1 was used to facilitate laryngoscopy (which lasted 10s) and tracheal intubation. Arterial pressure, heart rate and noradrenaline concentration in mixed venous plasma increased significantly after suxamethonium, and increased further after laryngoscopy and intubation in the control group ( n =10). The QT interval of the ECG was prolonged after the administration of suxamethonium, and was prolonged further after laryngoscopy and intubation. All these changes were attenuated in patients pretreated with alfentanil ( n =10), but four patients had chest wall rigidity. Changes in the QT interval correlated directly with the changes in plasma noradrenaline concentration ( r =0.67). Plasma adrenaline concentrations decreased during induction of anaesthesia in both groups.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a multicentric malignant tumor. The underlying liver disease of HCC is most often chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis of viral, or less commonly alcoholic, origin. The only method of detecting the tumor before it becomes advanced is screening the patient with ultrasound every six months. Even if the detected tumor is single, other tumors will appear eventually, the time delay depending on various factors.


This paper presents the comparison between the cogging torques produced by four IPMSGs (Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generators) with different stator winding configurations. More in detail, an IPMSG model, which is derived from a commercial geometry, is analyzed through means of a FEM (Finite Element Method) approach. Then, three more structures are determined and analyzed by adequately changing the number of stator slots of the basic IPMSG stator structure and by maintaining the same rotor configuration. From the obtained simulation results, the cogging torque components for each structure are determined and compared. From this comparison, it can be stated that the use of dissymmetric windings does not affect significantly the generated cogging torque.


Following the enactment of the NLRA in 1935, American Federation of Labor craft unions had difficulty organizing persons employed in manufacturing industries since most failed to fit within the jurisdictions of particular unions. The AFL formed the Committee for Industrial Organization to determine how best to organize these workers, and this Committee ultimately withdrew from the AFL and formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The CIO unions quickly organized the industrial workers in the steel, automobile, electrical manufacturing, and rubber industries. By the late 1950s, 35 percent of private sector employees were union members. As the United States economy began to transition from manufacturing to post-industrial white collar and service, union membership began a steady decline. By 2005, it was under 8 percent. Unions continue to employ blue collar appeals to organize new-age, twenty-first century employees. If labor organizations are to regain their previous vitality, they need to form new entities that will appeal to white-collar workers in retail, insurance, finance, health care, and similar occupations. The Change-to-Win Coalition recently broke away from the AFL-CIO with the goal of spending more money to organize modern workers. These entities need to create new professional associations that will appeal to new-age workers who view traditional union membership as unprofessional. They need to reflect the hopes and aspirations of the people they are endeavoring to organize. If labor organizations fail to adjust, they will become almost irrelevant institutions.


Owning to the rapid growth of consumer electronics market, there are urgent needs for better control over IC design projects, reuses of design knowledge (e.g., silicon intellectual property - SIP), and design collaboration in a virtual design platform. In order to provide IC industry a well-integrated design environment, this research proposes an information platform which combines the project management module, the design knowledge management module and the collaborative working environment for the IC industry. With the help of the project management module, the R&D team leaders can better control its partners' and its own schedules to shorten the time to market. Moreover, the design knowledge (SIP) management module provides the IC companies and their partners a knowledge exchange environment to enrich the design chain productivity and efficiency. Finally, the integration of collaborative working environment is the propeller to enable collaborative design. With the collaborative project and knowledge management platform, IC companies gain competitive advantages when working as a virtual design team.


rise in antibody titre at all. In a small minority of these individuals there may be evidence of reinfection. This usually manifests as an entirely subclinical event with only a 4-8-fold rise in antibody titre, all the antibody being of the IgG class. There is no evidence that such events represent any risk to the fetus. Very rarely there is evidence of clinically apparent reinfection' 2 and in the following case this appeared to be related to vaccine. A 22-year-old staff member donated serum for rubella antibody screening on 13 January 1975. The rubella HI titre was 1/16 and all this activity fractionated as IgG on gel filtration with Sephadex G-200. On 18 February she was given rubella vaccine (Almevax) and on 24 February she developed a typical rubella-like illness with a rash. A serum sample taken on 4 March had a titre of 1/4096, and 50",, of this activity was of the IgM class. The clinical features and the serological response in this case were similar to those occurring in primary infections. The patient described by Dr Snijder and his colleagues did not have a rash, but the magnitude of the serological response was again similar to that of a primary infection. Their failure to find specific IgM antibody in the serum taken in the 38th week does not prove that an IgM response did not occur, since specific rubella IgM antibody may become undetectable within 3-4 weeks of the acute infection.3 Thus it would seem possible that reinfection with evidence of a viraemia (the occurrence of a rash in the case described here and of congenital infection in the case described by Dr Snijder and his colleagues) may occur. However, whether these are reinfections or primary infections depends entirely on the significance of the low-titre rubella HI activity in the early sera. Haukenes and his colleagues have shown that all classes of lipoprotein can be non-specific inhibitors of rubella haemagglutination' and that some sediment in the IgG-containing fractions in sucrose density gradients.) The work of Freeman and Smith'i suggests that some oc-lipoproteins will fractionate with IgG on gel filtration with Sephadex G-200. Thus it is possible that rubella HI activity which fractionates as IgG may in reality be non-specific inhibitor. It is likely that in the vast majority of cases rubella HI titres of 1/16 represent specific antibody and immunity to reinfection with viraemia. Very occasionally such low titres may represent residual non-specific inhibitors and this should be taken into account when investigating persons with low rubella HI titres as possible cases or contacts of rubella.


The results of three years' starting-up period of the phased-recycled flocs system (contact process) treating citric acid factory wastewater are presented in the light of the process characterization approach. After the description of the system and starting-up studies, the reasons of and remedies for the problems of starting-up are discussed with emphasis laid on the biochemistry and microbiology, design and operation parameters,and environmental factors of the anaerobic process.


In brain-machine interface (BMI) applications, neural firing activities have been represented by spike counts with a fixed-width time bin. Adaptive models have been designed to utilize these bin counts for mapping the associated behavior which is typically 2D or 3D hand movement. However, the representation of the firing activities can be enriched by binning neural spikes with multiple time scales based on multiresolution analysis. This multiresolution representation of neural activities can provide more accurate prediction of the hand movement parameters. Data mining techniques must be applied to models using multiresolution representation in order to avoid over-fitting. In this paper, we demonstrate that the multiresolution representation improves the performance of the linear model for BMIs compared to the model with the fixed-width time bin


ABSTRACT Media capabilities influence consumers' trust in online exchanges. However, in the sharing economy, where consumers interact with service providers through a platform, conventional models of trust must be revisited. Our research identifies how media synchronicity and anonymity influence the relative importance of institution-based trust in sharing economy exchanges. We collected data from 248 ride-hailing customers and 288 cryptocurrency users to test a moderated mediation model of trust. We find that in the sharing economy media synchronicity and anonymity lead customers to develop trust toward service providers directly and undermine the impact of institutional trust mechanisms. This indicates that in sharing economy exchanges, trust can be built directly with the service provider, or alternatively, indirectly through the platform. Consequently, organizations in the sharing economy can strategically design their systems to engender trust by choosing between (1) emphasizing the platform's reputation or (2) encouraging direct communication between the consumer and service providers.


Purpose: Fiscal sustainability is high on the global political agenda. Yet, implementing the needed performance-orientation throughout public-sector organizations remains problematic. Such implementation seems to run counter to deep-seated social structures. In this paper the aim is to shed light via key change agents' views on these social structures at the management level during the implementation of a performance-based budgeting scheme. Design/methodology/approach: The authors analyzed documentary data and conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key change agents operative within central government ministries in The Netherlands. The data were analyzed using a structurational approach to identify the enablers and barriers to performance-based budgeting implementation. Findings: In total, 29 social enablers and barriers to performance-based budgeting implementation were derived. These were categorized into: Context, Autonomy, Traditional beliefs, Influence on results, and Top management support. Based on these categories five propositions were developed on how social structures enable and constrain performance-based budgeting implementation among public managers. Research limitations/implications: The study was executed in one country in a specific period in time. Although the problems with performance-based budgeting exist over the globe, research is needed to study whether similar social structures enable and impede implementation. Social implications: Policy makers and change agents aiming to improve fiscal sustainability by budgeting reform need to consider the found social structures. Where possible they could strengthen enablers and design specific comprehensive measures to tackle the barriers identified. Originality/value: This paper provides insight and develops knowledge on the social structures that enable and constrain performance-based budgeting, which in turn improves fiscal sustainability.


Summary form only given. Application level multicast approaches have attracted interests in both research and industrial communities. Among various approaches, constructing the overlay multicast tree based on mesh network is very promising for a large multicast group size. This approach is efficient in bandwidth utilization but suffer from high computation overhead. We present a new approach for constructing an overlay multicast tree in a large scale media streaming system using neural networks. The media server first constructs an overlay multicast tree for requests arriving in a relatively short time interval. Then the subsequent requests can join the multicast tree in a distributed way. To utilize the interface bandwidth efficiently, we formulate the original tree construction problem as a balanced multicast tree problem and propose a new SOFM-like neural network algorithm to obtain the solution. For the requests arriving at a later time, the proxy servers process the requests and join the multicast tree using a decentralized prediction based on a multilayered neural network. The tree is kept balanced in the tree joining process by having proxy servers predict the traffic load on its neighbors.


Background
Recent studies have confirmed that sulforaphane (SFN) can activate multiple pathways, and promote the expression of the antioxidants in cells.Thioredoxin (Trx) plays an important role in maintaining the intracellular redox in the steady state.

Objective
This study was to investigate the effect and mechanism of SFN on Trx expression in bovine trabecular meshwork cells (BTMCs) cultured in vitro.

Methods
BTMCs were cultured in vitro and identified by morphological evaluation.The third generation of BTMCs were cultured in the medium with 0, 10, 20 and 30 μmol/L SFN for 30 minutes.Real-time PCR was applied to measure the expression of Trx mRNA in BTMCs.The BTMCs were randomly divided into normal control group, LY294002 group, U0126 group, SFN group, LY294002+ SFN group and U0126+ SFN group.The expressions of Nrf2 protein and Trx protein in each group were measured by Western blot.

Results
The BTMCs was successfully cultured in vitro.The expressions of Trx mRNA were significantly different among the different concentrationss of SFN treatment (F=88.090, P<0.01). The expressions of Trx protein and Nrf2 protein in the LY294002+ SFN group, U0126+ SFN group and SFN group were significantly higher than those in the normal control group (all at P<0.01). The expressions of Trx protein and Nrf2 protein in the LY294002+ SFN group and U0126+ SFN group were significantly higher than those in the SFN group (all at P<0.01).

Conclusions
SFN can activate Nrf2 by phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase(PI3K)/protein kinase B (Akt) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular regulated protein kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) signaling pathways, which can increase the expression level of Trx in BTMCs cultured in vitro.

Key words:
Sulforaphane; Thioredoxin; Phosphotidylinositol-3-kinase; Mitogen-activated protein kinase; Nrf2; Trabecular meshwork cell


How can we understand the world as a whole instead of separate natural and human realms? Joseph T. Rouse proposes an approach to this classic problem based on radical new conceptions of both philosophical naturalism and scientific practice. Rouse begins with a detailed critique of modern thought on naturalism, from Neurath and Heidegger to Charles Taylor, Thomas Kuhn and W.V.O. Quine. He identifies two constraints central to a philosophically robust naturalism: it must impose no arbitrarily philosophical restrictions on science, and it must shun even the most subtle appeals to mysterious and supernatural forces. Thus a naturalistic approach requires philosophers to show that their preferred conception of nature is what scientific inquiry discloses, and that their conception of scientific understanding is itself intelligible as part of the natural world. Finally, Rouse draws on feminist science studies and other recent work on causality and discourse to demonstrate the crucial role that closer attention to scientifc practice can play in reclaiming naturalism.


Designing distributed controllers for self-reconfiguring modular robots has been consistently challenging. We have developed a reinforcement learning approach which can be used both to automate controller design and to adapt robot behavior on-line. In this paper, we report on our study of reinforcement learning in the domain of self-reconfigurable modular robots: the underlying assumptions, the applicable algorithms and the issues of partial observability, large search spaces and local optima. We propose and validate experimentally in simulation a number of techniques designed to address these and other scalability issues that arise in applying machine learning to distributed systems such as modular robots. We discuss ways to make learning faster, more robust and amenable to on-line application by giving scaffolding to the learning agents in the form of policy representation, structured experience and additional information. With enough structure modular robots can run learning algorithms to both automate the generation of distributed controllers, and adapt to the changing environment and deliver on the self-organization promise with less interference from human designers, programmers and operators.


We have reported that nicotine and the specific α7AChR agonist ameliorate indomethacin-induced intestinal lesions in mice by activating α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7nAChR). Dopamine D₂-receptor antagonists, such as domperidone and metoclopramide, enhance the release of ACh from vagal efferent nerves. The present study examined the effects of domperidone and metoclopramide on indomethacin-induced small intestinal ulceration in mice, focusing on the α7AChR. Male C57BL/6 mice were administered indomethacin (10 mg/kg, s.c.) and sacrificed 24 h later. Domperidone (0.1-10 mg/kg) and metoclopramide (0.03-0.3 mg/kg) were administered i.p. twice, at 0.5 h before and 8 h after indomethacin treatment, while methyllycaconitine (a selective antagonist of α7nAChR, 30 mg/kg) was administered twice, at 0.5 h before each domperidone treatment. Indomethacin caused severe hemorrhagic lesions in the small intestine, mostly to the jejunum and ileum, with a concomitant increase in myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. Domperidone suppressed the severity of lesions and the increase in MPO activity at low doses (0.1-3 mg/kg), but not at a high dose (10 mg/kg). Similar effects were also observed by metoclopramide. The protective effects of domperidone and metoclopramide were totally abolished by prior administration of methyllycaconitine. Indomethacin treatment markedly enhanced inducible nitric oxide synthase and chemokine mRNA expression in the small intestine, but these responses were all significantly attenuated by either domperidone or metoclopramide. These findings suggest that dopamine D₂-receptor antagonists ameliorate indomethacin-induced small intestinal ulceration through the activation of endogenous anti-inflammatory pathways mediated by α7nAChR.


Abnormally high levels of class I histone deacetylases (HDACs) are associated with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) proliferation, malignant transformation, and poor prognosis of patients. Herein, we report a near-infrared imaging probe for TNBC detection via visualizing class I HDACs. Conjugating Cy5.5 to a cyclic depsipeptide inhibitor, we obtained the probe (20-Cy5.5) that retained desirable class I HDAC affinity and selectivity. Then, this probe could visualize epigenetic changes by class I HDACs in TNBC MDA-MB-231 cells and in xenograft tumor models in real time. Treatment with suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) significantly reduced the uptake of the probe in tumors, suggesting its potential use in evaluation of therapeutic responses of HDACi-mediated therapy. Moreover, 20-Cy5.5 could detect class I HDAC expression in TNBC lung metastasis. This novel NIR probe that achieves tumor class I HDAC imaging not only leads to a better understanding of epigenetic regulation in tumors but also has great potential for improving the TNBC diagnosis and treatment.


Ongoing climate change is already affecting crop production patterns worldwide. Our aim was to investigate how increasing temperature and CO2 as well as changes in precipitation could affect potential yields for different historical pedoclimatic conditions at high latitudes (i.e., >55°). The APSIM crop model was used to simulate the productivity of four annual crops (barley, forage maize, oats, and spring wheat) over five sites in Sweden ranging between 55 and 64°N. A first set of simulations was run using site-specific daily weather data acquired between 1980 and 2005. A second set of simulations was then run using incremental changes in precipitation, temperature and CO2 levels, corresponding to a range of potential future climate scenarios. All simulation sets were compared in terms of production and risk of failure. Projected future trends showed that barley and oats will reach a maximum increase in yield with a 1°C increase in temperature compared to the 1980–2005 baseline. The optimum temperature for spring wheat was similar, except at the northernmost site (63.8°N), where the highest yield was obtained with a 4°C increase in temperature. Forage maize showed best performances for temperature increases of 2–3°C in all locations, except for the northernmost site, where the highest simulated yield was reached with a 5°C increase. Changes in temperatures and CO2 were the main factors explaining the changes in productivity, with ~89% of variance explained, whereas changes in precipitation explained ~11%. At the northernmost site, forage maize, oats and spring wheat showed decreasing risk of crop failure with increasing temperatures. The results of this modeling exercise suggest that the cultivation of annual crops in Sweden should, to some degree, benefit from the expected increase of temperature in the coming decades, provided that little to no water stress affects their growth and development. These results might be relevant to agriculture studies in regions of similar latitudes, especially the Nordic countries, and support the general assumption that climate change should have a positive impact on crop production at high latitudes.


The problem of estimating mechanical boresight and jitter performance of a laser pointing system in the presence of atmospheric turbulence is considered. A novel estimator based on maximizing an average probability density function (pdf) of the received signal is presented. The proposed estimator uses a Gaussian far-field mean irradiance profile, and the irradiance pdf is assumed to be lognormal. The estimates are obtained using a sequence of return signal values from the intended target. Alternatively, one can think of the estimates being made by a cooperative target using the received signal samples directly. The estimator does not require sample-to-sample atmospheric turbulence parameter information. The approach is evaluated using wave optics simulation for both weak and strong turbulence conditions. Our results show that very good boresight and jitter estimation performance can be obtained under the weak turbulence regime. We also propose a novel technique to include the effect of very low received intensity values that cannot be measured well by the receiving device. The proposed technique provides significant improvement over a conventional approach where such samples are simply ignored. Since our method is derived from the lognormal irradiance pdf, the performance under strong turbulence is degraded. However, the ideas can be extended with appropriate pdf models to obtain more accurate results under strong turbulence conditions.


Morphological analysis is a basic enabling application for further kinds of natural language processing, including part-of-speech tagging, parsing, translation and other high-level applications. Automated morphological analyzers exist for many of the European languages, but have not been reported for any of the indigenous languages of southern Africa. Our project in computational morphological analysis/generation includes the production of an automated morphological analyzer/generator for Zulu, using finite-state methods and tools. In this paper we elaborate on the use of finite-state methods in computational morphology, and report on our treatment of the Zulu noun.


Summary The efficacy of vaccination against enteric colibacillosis was evaluated in conventionally reared, artificially infected early weaned piglets. Successful infection with profuse diarrhoea was produced with haemolytic E. coli E145 administered orally to piglets derived from normal sows. Active immunisation of the piglets soon after birth with strain E145 did not protect them from diarrhoea when they were challenged with the same organism. Passive immunisation of piglets with parenterally injected immune serum from a sow vaccinated with strain E145 also failed to protect. On the other hand, no diarrhoea was induced in piglets from sows vaccinated with the challenge organism, although intermittent loose faeces were observed for a relatively short time. Large numbers of E. coli E145 were excreted 2 days after oral challenge in the faeces of the offspring of normal sows. In contrast, this organism appeared, on the average, 4 days later in the faeces of piglets derived from the vaccinated sows; it was excreted for a shorter time and in smaller numbers. Circulating antibodies against E. coli E145 were detected by passive cutaneous anaphylaxis before challenge only in piglets derived from vaccinated sows. High serum antibody levels against E145 were detected in all piglets after challenge, irrespective of whether they had actual diarrhoea or not. A non-haemolytic E. coli strain Mac 111, isolated from a piglet with enteric colibacillosis, failed to induce this disease experimentally.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of coeliac disease amongst the population with unexplained chronic hypertransaminasemia in our region.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A prospective study was carried out on 147 consecutive patients with chronic hypertransaminasemia, having previously discarded alcoholic cause, hepatotoxic drugs, B, C and Delta viral infections, autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, Jemochromatosis, alfal-antitrypsin deficiency, Wilson's disease, congestive liver and illicit drug use. Serum Ig A to gliadin and endomysium antibodies were determined. Intestinal biopsy was carried out in cases those positive for one or both antibodies.

RESULTS
One patient was positive for both IgA to gliadin and to endonisyum antibodies, whereas another three patients were positive to IgA to gliadin only. A duodenal biopsy proved normal in two, a total villous atrophy in one and subtotal atrophy in other.

CONCLUSIONS
1. The prevalence of coeliac disease amongst the population with unexplained chronic hypertransaminasemia in our region is 1.4%. 2. In our region, screening for coeliac disease in unexplained chronic hypransaminasemia should take a secondary place.


We consider coordination issues in supply chains where supplier's production process is subject to random yield losses. For a simple supply chain with a single supplier and retailer facing deterministic demand, a pay back contract which has the retailer paying a discount price for the supplier's excess units can provide the right incentive for the supplier to increase his production size and achieve coordination. Building upon this result, we consider coordination issues for two other supply chains: one with competing retailers, the other with stochastic demand. When retailers compete for both demand and supply, they tend to over-order. We show that a combination of a pay back and revenue sharing mechanism can coordinate the supply chain, with the pay back mechanism correcting the supplier's under-producing problem and the revenue sharing mechanism correcting the retailers' over-ordering problem. When demand is stochastic, we consider a modified pay-back-revenue-sharing contract under which the retailer agrees to not only purchase the supplier's excess output (beyond the retailer's order), but also share with the supplier a portion of the revenue made from the sales of the excess output. We show that this contract, by giving the supplier additional incentives in the form of revenue share, can achieve coordination.